Towards sustainable design for single-use medical devices.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
; 2009: 5602-5, 2009.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19964137
ABSTRACT
Despite their sophistication and value, single-use medical devices have become commodity items in the developed world. Cheap raw materials along with large scale manufacturing and distribution processes have combined to make many medical devices more expensive to resterilize, package and restock than to simply discard. This practice is not sustainable or scalable on a global basis. As the petrochemicals that provide raw materials become more expensive and the global reach of these devices continues into rapidly developing economies, there is a need for device designs that take into account the total life-cycle of these products, minimize the amount of non-renewable materials consumed and consider alternative hybrid reusable / disposable approaches. In this paper, we describe a methodology to perform life cycle and functional analyses to create additional design requirements for medical devices. These types of sustainable approaches can move the medical device industry even closer to the "triple bottom line"--people, planet, profit.
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Diseño Asistido por Computadora
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Equipo Reutilizado
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Equipos y Suministros
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Diseño de Equipo
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
Año:
2009
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos